Kanishk Tharoor
@kanishktharoor.bsky.social
Author of "Swimmer Among the Stars" (FSG), presenter of "Museum of Lost Objects" (BBC), and Deputy Editor at Foreign Affairs. Pitch me at ktharoor@foreignaffairs.com.
"To drive a Cybertruck is to partake in the fantasy of a premodern lawlessness in which the mightiest warlord made his own rules, unencumbered by legislation or moral stricture." Maya Vinokur in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
What Was the Cybertruck?
Elon Musk’s car from space offered a vision for a sustainable and autonomous future. All along, it was as awkward, easily bruised, and volatile as the entrepreneur himself.
www.thenation.com
November 3, 2025 at 4:02 PM
"To drive a Cybertruck is to partake in the fantasy of a premodern lawlessness in which the mightiest warlord made his own rules, unencumbered by legislation or moral stricture." Maya Vinokur in @thenation.com www.thenation.com/article/soci...
A really bracing essay from Michael Beckley in the new issue of @foreignaffairs.com on the stagnation of the global order. "The world is now a closed club of aging incumbents, circled by middle powers, developing countries, and failing states." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
The Stagnant Order
The end of rising powers.
www.foreignaffairs.com
October 23, 2025 at 2:49 PM
A really bracing essay from Michael Beckley in the new issue of @foreignaffairs.com on the stagnation of the global order. "The world is now a closed club of aging incumbents, circled by middle powers, developing countries, and failing states." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
As Lula speaks at the UN, read the scholar and former Brazilian official Hussein Kalout on Trump's vendetta against Brazil: www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
Trump’s Collision Course With Brazil
How U.S. policy is playing into China’s hands—and remaking Latin America.
www.foreignaffairs.com
September 23, 2025 at 2:18 PM
As Lula speaks at the UN, read the scholar and former Brazilian official Hussein Kalout on Trump's vendetta against Brazil: www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
According to Robert Pape, Israel's war in Gaza has killed five to ten percent of the pre-war population, making the Israeli offensive "the most lethal case of a Western democracy using the punishment of civilians as a tactic of war." www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/unpar...
The Unparalleled Devastation of Gaza
Why punishing civilians has not yielded strategic success.
www.foreignaffairs.com
August 7, 2025 at 3:54 PM
According to Robert Pape, Israel's war in Gaza has killed five to ten percent of the pre-war population, making the Israeli offensive "the most lethal case of a Western democracy using the punishment of civilians as a tactic of war." www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/unpar...
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
“There’s no hunger in Gaza,” Eliyahu said in the same interview, dismissing reports of starvation as anti-Israel propaganda. “But we don’t need to be concerned with hunger in the Strip. Let the world worry about it.” @ishaantharoor.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
Column | As Gaza starves, Israel’s far right sees a dream coming true
Members of Israel’s government embrace the Trump-inspired vision of a Gaza of gleaming towers, ritzy tourism and pristine neighborhoods, but without Palestinians.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 28, 2025 at 1:46 PM
“There’s no hunger in Gaza,” Eliyahu said in the same interview, dismissing reports of starvation as anti-Israel propaganda. “But we don’t need to be concerned with hunger in the Strip. Let the world worry about it.” @ishaantharoor.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
The Brilliance is in the Bullshit: another look at the Clash of Civilizations
foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/27/s...
foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/27/s...
How to Sell a Clash of Civilizations
The incoherence of Samuel Huntington’s famous thesis is also its power.
foreignpolicy.com
June 27, 2025 at 6:17 PM
The Brilliance is in the Bullshit: another look at the Clash of Civilizations
foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/27/s...
foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/27/s...
If @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social eventually becomes mayor of NYC, that would mean that the mayor of NYC and the mayor of London, @london.gov.uk Sadiq Khan, the mayors of two hugely important global cities, will both belong to the same fervent, zealous tribe. Like me, they are supporters of Arsenal FC.
June 24, 2025 at 2:25 PM
If @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social eventually becomes mayor of NYC, that would mean that the mayor of NYC and the mayor of London, @london.gov.uk Sadiq Khan, the mayors of two hugely important global cities, will both belong to the same fervent, zealous tribe. Like me, they are supporters of Arsenal FC.
For many of us who came of age around the time of the Iraq War, this all feels rather bleak and familiar. And yet, before the US invaded Iraq, there were millions in the streets. If an antiwar movement remains in the US, it has been entirely subsumed by the convulsed state of American politics.
June 22, 2025 at 3:17 AM
For many of us who came of age around the time of the Iraq War, this all feels rather bleak and familiar. And yet, before the US invaded Iraq, there were millions in the streets. If an antiwar movement remains in the US, it has been entirely subsumed by the convulsed state of American politics.
Read Robert Pape in @foreignaffairs.com on why Israel's air war on Iran will fail. www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/israels... Even if the United States supports Israel in an attack on Fordow, it will not be able to destroy Iran's nuclear program.
Israel’s Futile Air War
Precision strikes will not destroy Iran’s nuclear program—or its government.
www.foreignaffairs.com
June 17, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Read Robert Pape in @foreignaffairs.com on why Israel's air war on Iran will fail. www.foreignaffairs.com/iran/israels... Even if the United States supports Israel in an attack on Fordow, it will not be able to destroy Iran's nuclear program.
Surreal that so much hinges on the wisdom of Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, MTG, and others prevailing in the internecine war in the American right over the Israel-Iran conflict.
June 17, 2025 at 2:52 AM
Surreal that so much hinges on the wisdom of Tucker Carlson, Steve Bannon, MTG, and others prevailing in the internecine war in the American right over the Israel-Iran conflict.
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
America now has the foreign policy of a personalist dictator. New piece from me in @foreignaffairs.com
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
Imperial President at Home, Emperor Abroad
American foreign policy in an age of unrestrained executive power.
www.foreignaffairs.com
June 16, 2025 at 11:00 AM
America now has the foreign policy of a personalist dictator. New piece from me in @foreignaffairs.com
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
Looking forward to speaking with Andre Aciman about his new book, Room on the Sea, at my local bookstore, @greenlightbklyn.bsky.social greenlightbookstore.com/event/2025-0... on July 1
André Aciman with Kanishk Tharoor
Brooklyn independent bookstore
greenlightbookstore.com
June 10, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Looking forward to speaking with Andre Aciman about his new book, Room on the Sea, at my local bookstore, @greenlightbklyn.bsky.social greenlightbookstore.com/event/2025-0... on July 1
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
Some context for my comment above about higher ed as a valuable export: In dollar terms, last year, the United States sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
May 27, 2025 at 6:11 PM
Some context for my comment above about higher ed as a valuable export: In dollar terms, last year, the United States sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined.
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/202...
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says his country is committing war crimes
Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says his country is committing war crimes
Prime minister over 2006-09 and former Likud member says Palestinian victims are at ‘monstrous proportions’
The former prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, has said that Israel is “committing war crimes” in Gaza, saying “thousands of innocent Palestinians are being killed, as well as many Israeli soldiers”.
Olmert, who served as the 12th prime minister of Israel from 2006 to 2009, wrote in an opinion piece for the Israeli newspaper and website Haaretz that “the government of Israel is currently waging a war without purpose, without goals or clear planning and with no chances of success”. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
May 27, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert says his country is committing war crimes
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
"Big Tech companies may be about to discover that not only are they never going to have access to the Chinese market but they are increasingly persona non grata in European markets, too." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
The Brewing Transatlantic Tech War
How Silicon Valley got entangled in geopolitics—and lost.
www.foreignaffairs.com
April 29, 2025 at 4:11 PM
"Big Tech companies may be about to discover that not only are they never going to have access to the Chinese market but they are increasingly persona non grata in European markets, too." www.foreignaffairs.com/united-state...
In the history of empires, how often has the metropole said, "Oh, wait, I want to be just like the periphery"?
Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."
April 7, 2025 at 2:04 PM
In the history of empires, how often has the metropole said, "Oh, wait, I want to be just like the periphery"?
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
My latest, sifting through the wreckage:
Trump hails ‘liberation.’ The world sees America alone.
Free to read.
wapo.st/4li0ob2
Trump hails ‘liberation.’ The world sees America alone.
Free to read.
wapo.st/4li0ob2
Column | Trump hails ‘liberation.’ The world sees America alone.
Trump’s tariff announcements in his so-called “Liberation Day” have ushered in a whole new era of global politics, world leaders, officials and analysts say.
wapo.st
April 4, 2025 at 2:02 PM
My latest, sifting through the wreckage:
Trump hails ‘liberation.’ The world sees America alone.
Free to read.
wapo.st/4li0ob2
Trump hails ‘liberation.’ The world sees America alone.
Free to read.
wapo.st/4li0ob2
Awaiting the avalanche of pieces on how the rest of the world can de-risk its supply chains... away from the US.
Carney: The system of global trade anchored on the United States.. is over. Our old relationship of steadily deepening integration with the United States is over. The 80 year period when the United States embraced the mantle of economic leadership… is over.
April 3, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Awaiting the avalanche of pieces on how the rest of the world can de-risk its supply chains... away from the US.
"Trumpism, in other words, is an intensification of long-standing, antidemocratic, and profoundly American trends. There is hardly a need to use the term fascism to understand it. This is America, and Trump is nothing if not deeply American." Daniel Bessner jacobin.com/2025/03/trum...
This Is America
Donald Trump’s authoritarian second term has led critics to describe him as a fascist in the mold of Adolf Hitler. But Trump’s reactionary politics are all-American — and the path to defeating him runs through reform of America’s antidemocratic institutions.
jacobin.com
April 3, 2025 at 1:51 PM
"Trumpism, in other words, is an intensification of long-standing, antidemocratic, and profoundly American trends. There is hardly a need to use the term fascism to understand it. This is America, and Trump is nothing if not deeply American." Daniel Bessner jacobin.com/2025/03/trum...
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
"Put simply, 'global South' is a euphemism, a seemingly innocuous substitute that allows those in polite society to avoid using the phrase they really mean: the nonwhite world."
— Zachariah Mampilly www.foreignaffairs.com/world/what-g...
— Zachariah Mampilly www.foreignaffairs.com/world/what-g...
What “the Global South” Really Means
A modern gloss for old divisions.
www.foreignaffairs.com
April 1, 2025 at 3:35 PM
"Put simply, 'global South' is a euphemism, a seemingly innocuous substitute that allows those in polite society to avoid using the phrase they really mean: the nonwhite world."
— Zachariah Mampilly www.foreignaffairs.com/world/what-g...
— Zachariah Mampilly www.foreignaffairs.com/world/what-g...
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
Trump is seen as serious about trying to remove Gazans from the territory. There have been conversations with various Arab and African states about whether they'd be willing to accept them. The Arab plan for Gaza is seen as unrealistic because it glosses over key issues.
March 24, 2025 at 6:37 AM
Trump is seen as serious about trying to remove Gazans from the territory. There have been conversations with various Arab and African states about whether they'd be willing to accept them. The Arab plan for Gaza is seen as unrealistic because it glosses over key issues.
Interesting study that suggests the world’s population has been systematically undercounted and could be much larger than we imagine.
Undercounting in rural areas means we could be dramatically *low-balling* the true global population.
www.newscientist.com/article/2472...
www.newscientist.com/article/2472...
Have we vastly underestimated the total number of people on Earth?
A new way of estimating rural populations has found that we may be undercounting people who live in these areas, potentially inflating the global population beyond the official count of 8.2 billion - ...
www.newscientist.com
March 19, 2025 at 10:57 AM
Interesting study that suggests the world’s population has been systematically undercounted and could be much larger than we imagine.
Narrator voice: in fact, all the official intended was disrespect.
"'I say this with no disrespect to any of the previous administrations, and I’m trying to phrase this as delicately as possible,' the second official said. 'This White House has the balls to do it.'"
This is the Trump version of Rove's "reality-based community" putdown of GWB-era Dems.
This is the Trump version of Rove's "reality-based community" putdown of GWB-era Dems.
Trump escalates fight with federal courts over deportation authority
Several legal experts said the deportation episode marks a dramatic — and troubling — escalation in the Trump administration’s pushback against the courts.
www.washingtonpost.com
March 18, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Narrator voice: in fact, all the official intended was disrespect.
Reposted by Kanishk Tharoor
Drezner's World has never published anything not written by the hard-working staff. Until now. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/guest-post...
GUEST POST: We Are Professors at Columbia. Here is How We Would Respond.
Five Columbia University political scientists offer their unofficial response to the Trump administration's demands on their university.
danieldrezner.substack.com
March 17, 2025 at 7:34 PM
Drezner's World has never published anything not written by the hard-working staff. Until now. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/guest-post...